today's top stories in the review of the week from the sun the task of recovery rescuers are preparing to lift the russian cruiser from the bottom of the volga river where it sank in a matter of minutes last sunday claiming around one hundred thirty lives. relatives and investigators are all looking for answers as to why the ship sunk so fast we'll bring you all the details from the recovery site in just a moment. the scandal claims another skulk london's police commissioner quits is the focus of the fury of the phone hacking scandal switches to the police the former news international c.e.o. rebecca brooks is arrested earlier in the day. banking on change

libyan rebels now have full diplomatic recognition from washington and with its access to colored after his assets frozen in the u.s. . intercontinental cash crunch as america faces up to the possibility of default europe's debt crisis contagion piles more pressure on the euro. you're watching the weekly on r.t. with the main headlines of the past week and the latest developments it's being described as the biggest disaster in russia's modern history in the space of just three minutes a pleasure cruiser with two hundred eight people on board went down in the volga river taking over half of its passengers when it only one hundred thirty people were killed. many of them children

a week later the operation to raise the ship from the bottom is underway is told on reports the bulgaria is still under the water at the moment behind me you can probably see the tops of two enormous cranes that have been brought up from further downstream and then attached to them or is it an enormous cable that goes down and is threaded underneath the ship and that cable is going to be used first of all at the moment divers and the crane teams are in the process of trying to rights that all garrett was leaned on his left side and then once they've righted it they'll be able to start to lift it up a lot of the complications that divers are facing are due to the way under speed that the ship sank. firstly the fact that it's on its left side will mean that divers will have to go under that left side as it's righted first of all to check that the ship is structurally sound to be right to be raised and also to try and look for some of the fifteen bodies which are still to be accounted for which still

haven't been found then once they start to raise the ship divers are going to have to first of all try and find a centrally the hole to let in all the water and some of the ship once they have found out they'll want to seal that hole and all the other caps on the ship so that once it's partially raise the pump out the water from the ship making it light enough to raise it more easily a very complex operation visibility in the water is very poor for the divers there's a lot of algae in the water at this time and so it's proving to be a drawn out process but one that is crucial for all those people waiting for answers a mountain of cuddly toys never to be played with they are flowers and candles a testament to the children among those who drowned in the pleasure boat the bulgarian sank in the volga last sunday. we study together for a year. i had arguments with a new one she was

a very kind girl and was always ready to help. the ship sank in just three minutes turning a summer afternoon on the river into a scene of horror. is that people were basically buried alive in anti-matter coffin we managed to get out through the windows i was there with my ten year old daughter i couldn't rescue her she swallowed too much water when i was pulled out i realized my child was gone in the chaos to escape and many other families were also torn apart one five year old boy lost his mother and grandmother and was only kept afloat by a man who grabbed his hand another man unable to hold on to his son in a strong current oil slick had to watch him drown in front of him yuri was the deejay for the disco on the bottom deck the only just managed to escape. and i remember clearly that water was rising very quickly it was a matter of seconds i survived because we saw

a broken window and the sailors started pushing people out through it at that moment we'd be open the surface and then i saw that the board was already underwater. over half the bulgaria's two hundred eight passengers and crew including the captain his wife and child never made it out meanwhile as the arabella another pleasure boat arrived at the scene she was surrounded by people screaming and drowning unable to reach the banks of the vast river three kilometers away. as we approached it was hard to distinguish in the dark water people who were alive from the rubble that was floating around people were in panic when we rescued them in a state of shock some suffering from traumas they were all covered in oil fuel that was leaking from a sunken ship it was a terrifying picture i have to say despite a huge search and rescue operation after the initial survivors were picked up. were found. the divers and cranes working in this water have been trying to recover just

something of the lives lost and families destroyed in those few terrible minutes but they've also been working on the question the cost so much why did the bulgaria sink and sink so fast. as the list of bodies recovered from the ship grew so did the number of revelations about an aging dangerous and badly managed vessel eyewitnesses people connected with the ship came forward with damning accounts of its poor condition and the stingy management forced it to keep sailing. i became captain of the vessel in two thousand and seven ship had been renovated for a while before that there were big problems with the engines and power generators to repeatedly mention that to the management and even had an argument with them port authorities say they were lied to the ship was only supposed to carry one hundred forty people but was loaded with over two hundred they were told it was carrying twenty more tales of pounds including

a broken engine electricity generators failing so that no s.o.s. signal or tunnel instructions could be issued and blocked emergency exits criminal cases have been opened and arrests being made into the bulgaria sinking and more controversially into why two ships which reached the scene before the arabella didn't pick up a single person but reports the crew members instead took pictures on their mobile phones. all the passengers were shocked and there were about seventeen people on a raft many had cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the board passers by in a different direction towards. the slow process of raising the bulgaria has now started but with it will come the potential for answers but also terrible memories in particular associated with the ship's play room. or

a group of children were gathered on the ship. just some of the young victims in what will go down as one of russia's worst and most avoidable shipping disasters tom bottom r.t. . the captain of a ship who helped rescue seventy seven people from the sinking bokhari has been describing the horrific disaster scene in a full interview with martin you can see it in full in just over an hour from now or find it online at our website or to dot com and all the latest reports of the intense search and recovery operation since the tragedy happened. there and by the way while you're online remember to check out our you tube channel for all our videos on the salvage mission. it's.

the. london's police commissioner has resigned as britain's newspaper phone hacking scandal escalates still further it follows revelations the heart of former news of the world journalist as a media adviser at the same time this is for some supposed to be investigating the paper's conduct to start before the former news of the world executive rebecca brooks was arrested amid claims of hacking and bribing police media analyst and reporter phil research the practice of police being paid for information by the media is not likely to disappear anytime soon. this is a good example of what the police have been doing in the kind of murdoch years they've been using arrested been leaking they're being paid for telling people when some celebrities have been arrested so actually manipulating the rest of. people i

mean it's actually a practice that has become in trying now in my view as a result of the kind of bribery thing so this would hardly be out of practice but i don't think it's going to deflect the opinion i mean there are so many m.p.'s now and indeed so much of the british establishment which for so long kowtow to murdoch is now prepared to get to the bottom of this and we need out those people who've been corrupted different levels remember that four years ago police had these bags with i think it was a leaven thousand letters about four thousand celebrities and victims of crime and all these other people and they knew they were taking part investigation and these bags were just left there i mean it's amazing remarkable that it took four years for them to do anything about this meanwhile senior police officers were wining and dining with members of the murdoch empire they were they were meeting them for drinks probably one even hired them at a thousand pounds a day to work for him so you know what does this tell us about the relationship between the police and the news corp employees well it's very very serious and if

this can happen at the top of the police look at the example that gives the officers there on down the lines you know you could well you know can any organization properly examine itself but so much is at stake that if that operation is seen to be corrupted as well i think we've got you know an even bigger problem and i think so many people now are watching it including you know members of parliament select committees these are investigative bodies within the british political system they're all all eyes are on this let alone all the journalists who are looking at what's going on so i think that the ramifications of this is so big i mean you know britain is in shaking at this each day it's headline news and people are asking who's next. meanwhile rupert murdoch is trying to rescue news corp's crumbling reputation he spent the last forty eight hours apologizing for the phone hacking scandal with full page newspaper ad while also meeting the family of a murdered teenager whose voicemail was intercepted and there's reports it's

a watershed moment for the cozy relationship between britain's politicians and press. but every media outlet and own t.v. radio even the sky rate is when art imitates life a long running simpsons takes a shot at its owner rupert murdoch aka montgomery burns in an episode broadcast apparently coincidentally this week. but it's not the only piece of timing in the extraordinary phone hacking case it seems to get more scandalous every day the list of something like four thousand names which the police have have since about two thousand and forty thousand and five and yet they promise facie evidence of criminal activity by these individuals and boy by the murdoch empire and yet they have not acted on it so why now just as the murdoch deal to take control of satellite t.v.

giant piece guy sure to go ahead his thoughts rival the guardian newspaper releases catastrophic allegations of a moral journalists and their shady practices that when the deal collapses the times for example which currently loses money could have transferred some of the profits from. investing in the times for example the guardian the daily telegraph that it's not just the rival newspapers who stand to gain from murdoch's empire crumbling the b.b.c. could retake t.v. territory lost to b. sky b. and the labor party which was wounded by years of relentless attacks by murdoch papers can finally take revenge but where will all this lead.

that would suit the gov. just fine the british press is famous for its sharp teeth and no holds barred talkativeness particularly where its own government is concerned prime minister david cameron has all but shut down the press complaints commission and already talks of statutory controls to govern print journalists back in springfield mr burns is as the townspeople put up their own newspaper and he's almost right. because it is possible to control the media because. he is really beautiful murdoch found as did mr perkins that you just can't buy all the newspapers those outside his control have been gunning for him for years and this time they may have succeeded just as he looked set to consolidate control over a lot section of the u.k.'s media markets the drugs being pulled out from under him

and it's all over the hidden scandal now revealed that the police have known about it for years nor and it's hot seat to. the dangers of a debt default with them while the u.s. is on the brink of a financial nightmare and what it might do to try to avoid it. and red square a four wheeled frenzy is high speed formula one super cars screech through the center of moscow. a new round of nato airstrikes has rattled the suburbs of the libyan capital tripoli as colonel gadhafi valid never to leave his country in the face of assaults by the alliance and the rebels this comes after the opposition became the legitimate authority in the country in the eyes of more nations the u.s. and more than thirty other states recognize them would have diplomatic meeting on friday saying they would deal with them until an interim government is in place recognition by the contact group in libya also gives the rebels access to billions

of dollars of his frozen assets in u.s. banks into. commentator ted rall says the move is a radical shift from the international standpoint. the united states usually doesn't extend diplomatic recognition to a regime that is not in the capital and it isn't in power and doesn't even seem likely to be able to achieve power anytime soon but you can look at the situation in afghanistan during the one nine hundred ninety six to two thousand and one civil conflict there between the taleban in the northern alliance the northern alliance were the former regime that had power in kabul and you were diplomatic relations with the west even though the taleban controlled ninety five percent of the country it's always just wishful thinking and frankly if i were a diplomat i would find it disturbing to preserve our situation if the u.s. knows who these people are they're not seeing and certainly there's no doubt that traditionally there's always been a very high component of jihadi easy in and around benghazi so it's unrealistic to

assume that that is not still the case the u.s. has an amazing bit of shipping skids full of hundred dollar bills to third world countries and expecting them to end up in the right hands. really going to happen. the high level recognition of the rebels may bolster their spirit but it's a different story in combat this fighting for a key eastern oil town has ended with heavy casualties among the opposition as daniel bushell reports it's four provinces now talking tough to take with the libyan regime off the failing to deliver a knockout blow to gadhafi. book says like bragging will destroy the reporter lives there off the wrong and gets the mills the surprise i. french foreign minister should pay both did france would be libya in quotes days or weeks the wars into a fourth month and the final round inside nicolas sarkozy with his western

allies seem shocked their little opponents pointing back well it's not just an embarrassment for sarkozy for members from for all nato the whole west paris even admits all the libya's rebels were written some somalia. went to libya for training within the last two or three years that's documented we have the fly records and everything else so it seems strange in many ways the whole western support of some of the i will groups in libya must be questioned because in some cases i think we are effectively arming al-qaeda. it's all making a mockery of the un vote on foreign intervention in the country. none of. this. witness is made of libya's causing

widespread atrocities every. military person did it was supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians frauds categorically ruled out cindy grilled troops but expose predict is the only way to break the libyan deadlock the moves the splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of key partly italy admits invading libya was a mistake russia abstained did the us vote was full of bombs would bring in libya to pay said the latest who can't support the love ruffle quote lloyd lee diplomats speak for a blazing row with elections just annoying months away sako advisers said a successful war could bryza wrecked his chances instead one people rights libya's becoming a slow motion call crash for france's deeply unpopular president so it is easy

jogging for excessive sweating is understandable as is libyan sprint is turning into a marathon the new bush will see paris. a senior advisor to the afghan president hamid karzai and a member of parliament had been killed during a suicide attack in the capital kabul the incident comes less than a week after karr's eyes half brother was assassinated the taliban claimed responsibility for the killing describing it as one of its biggest achievements in a decade meanwhile the u.s. led coalition started handing over control of some afghanistan's territories to local security forces but journalist gerry van dyke has been held hostage by the taliban and says the u.s. led efforts in the region were seriously undermined by the. that phone conference. while he karzai it was not just the governor or the shadow governor of kandahar he was the most powerful and the most popular person throughout all of southern afghanistan this shows that right now with the canadian troops pulling out and with

the u.s. trying to now focus on eastern afghanistan feeling that they have controlled the south there is now a vacuum who is in power who can the west rely upon no one the taliban have claimed responsibility for this but it's not clear that the taliban are responsible it could very easily be a power struggle i've also heard and others have reported that he was responsible for perhaps starting to bring the taliban together with the united states to negotiate therefore someone would have had a definite reason perhaps pakistan perhaps the taliban to stop this we don't know yet who is responsible because they killed the person who had all the information. that was journalist gerry van dyke commenting on the killing of the afghan president's brother. now let's have a brief look at some other stories from around the world at this stage of the day egypt's former president hosni mubarak has suffered a stroke and is in

a coma according to his lawyers doctors were reportedly working to bring the eighty three year old leader to consciousness but health officials and state t.v. have denied information saying the barracks condition is stable it comes after the country's prime minister reshuffled his cabinet in response to renewed public protests demanding political reform. but it's where the president hugo chavez is back in cuba for more cancer treatment including chemotherapy and more ligament cells have been found after he had surgery to remove a tumor from his pelvis region he's transferred some powers to his ministers cheering his absence didn't agree to opposition calls for a temporary handover of all presidential authority his battle with cancer has raised doubts over his fitness to lead the country but officially he still plans to run for reelection next year. time is running out for american politicians to agree on the next move in sorting out soaring debt the deadline to lift the nation's fourteen point three trillion dollars debt ceiling is looming ever closer as

lawmakers struggle to find a compromise president obama is urging democrats and republicans to ignore their differences to avert armageddon leading credit rating agencies say there is a risk the u.s. could fail to resolve the deadlock quickly or effectively economist dr roger von hand there says the disagreement on capitol hill is interfering with attempts to reach a solution. and there's a personality conflict between the majority leader and the president which is quite unique and this has been taken into the public eye when you have discussion once that happens and trust is lost literally leaders it's far more difficult to secure an agreement behind the scenes if you cut spending you're going to also impede economic growth because the government is. one of the largest employers if you bring troops home and start the wars you also have a problem with employment as servicemen and women come home these are classic economic problems what's required in the u.s. is a drastic program of infrastructure development and public drives to guarantee wages

and on interest loans for average americans if italy defaults for instance in europe it will be impossible for northern europe to bail out italy that will take us over if the dollar significantly loses value when the us is unable to help europe that will in turn take the u.s. down the japanese no more have do not have sufficient liquidity to help this time around as they did in two thousand and eight the euro is intrinsically we are one is not a competitor for the dollar the ruble stands to be fairly stable given russia's standing as a major energy producer and natural resource drying on the world scene so the ruble should remain relatively stable the dollar however has nothing to go down against except the prank and if you look at the dollar and the franc the monetary relationship is an all time low and that portends trouble for the future the best two currencies probably are over the region krone the source franc at this point gold is over traded and as we saw in two thousand and eight there can be

a paradoxical drop in the price of gold during a market market crisis breaking on gold is a highly risky proposition. things are a little better in europe with italy now the focus will stop in the euro zone heading into the believe in rooms approved a tough seventy billion euro cut package to avoid the much needed bailout or perhaps a possible brain out of the euro zone's losses economy and could prove too big for its neighbors to say eight out of ninety european banks a failed stress test to see if they could survive another financial crisis financial writer patrick young says that the italian people's response to the budget cuts will echo what's happened. in greece no. there will be one significant difference between the people who take to the streets between greece and italy and that is that they greece at least thank goodness the taxi drivers don't go on strike where is it really i expect almost everybody is going to end up on strike

and it's going to be absolutely chaotic the only way they can slip this through is perhaps because we do have this long lead in time until the cuts really start to make an impact in two thousand and thirteen but i think the problem is in the meantime a large amount of the sort of the leftist opposition in italy for see the fact that silvio berlusconi to many of the reasons most of which are outside of the direction school reason are well i mean he's a wounded animal it is a point in time in some ways i think that he's going to be very difficult to hold his government together there are big problems in western europe the havens to be definitely to the east everyone not all fortunately except for the rich the prize and because the academic the contagion seems to be spreading and we have new political leadership seeming to do with. several moscow streets were impossible on sunday afternoon but not because of the notorious traffic jams they were sealed off to temporarily become the realm of the fast and the furious and a high octane performance formula one drivers burn some serious rather against the

amazing backdrop. that was part of the annual moscow city race and show the famous f one stars and the winners of world rally championships as a taste of things to come for russian f one fans as the country will get its own grand prix in three years time. no different to be driving we normally see here in the russian capital where we're discovering another part of russia with r.t. in just a few moments but before that i'll be back with a recap of our top stories think of this life in moscow.

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